The study of neural dendrite formation is of great significance both in theory and applications. However, the molecular mechanisms of regulation remain unclear. We previously described a novel EST, which has high homology with dentritic cell factors (DCF1), expressed differentially between undifferentiated and differentiated neural stem cells (NSCs). In this study, we cloned, expressed, and silenced the dcf1 gene and offered insight into its function in regulating dendrite formation during the differentiation of NSCs. The results indicated that dcf1 encoded a 42 kD protein and could be successfully expressed both in Escherichia coli and NSCs. In order to silence dcf1 gene, three different kinds of siRNA vectors were constructed and transformed into the NSC line C17.2 and primary NSCs, resulting in down regulation of the dcf1 mRNA. Analysis of immunofluorescence or GFP illuminated that with overexpression of the dcf1 gene, the NSCs were maintained in undifferentiated status. After the dcf1 gene was silenced, cells tended to differentiate into neurons and astrocytes.

Recovering Y and Eu from waste phosphors using chlorination roasting followed by a water leaching process was investigated in this study. Firstly, by chlorination roasting and water leaching, Y and Eu elements present in waste phosphors were efficiently extracted into a leach solution. Secondly, the majority of the impurities in the solution can be removed by adjusting the pH to 4.5 using a Na 2 S and NH 3 ·H 2 O solution. Thirdly, the rare earths can be precipitated afterwards by adding a H 2 C 2 O 4 solution and adjusting the pH to 2.0. Then rare earth oxides (REOs) can be obtained after calcining at 800 • C for 1 h. The characterization study of the waste phosphors and the rare earth oxide products was performed by XRD, XRF, and SEM-EDS analysis to determine the phase and morphological features. Influences of the factors, such as roasting temperatures and time, the addition of ammonium chloride on the roasting of waste phosphors, as well as the pH and the amount of oxalates on the precipitation of Y and Eu, were investigated. The maximum grade (99.84%) of mixed rare earth oxides and recovery rate (87.35%) of Y and Eu were obtained at the optimized conditions.

A novel functional gene P12 was isolated from neural stem cells cultured in differentiation medium. The fully length cDNA of P12 gene was cloned and sequenced. Result showed that it contains an open reading frame encoding a protein of 291 amino acids. Further, this gene was transferred into neural stem cell. Functional analysis suggests that the expression of p12 protein is closely correlated with differentiation of neural dendrite configuration. In addition, to obtain encoding protein, P12 sequence was also expressed in P/ch/a pastor/z yeast.